We all watch the news with horror when we hear about a homicide that happens not that far away from us. While a murder just blocks or even a couple of towns away from your house would make anyone uneasy, in the long run, most likely, where you live is relatively safe.

So we wanted to get the facts straight and dug into the FBI crime data in order to identify the places with the most murders and the highest murder rates per capita in Utah.

How we calculated the murder capitals of Utah

While there are surveys and public polls on what cities in a state are the most dangerous, we didn’t want to rely on speculation and opinion. Instead, we looked at the hard numbers from the FBI’s last year of reporting. Specifically, we analyzed the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report which summarizes the number of murders that may happen in each city per year.

We only looked every single city in Utah for which FBI data was available for the most recent FBI Crime In The United States. That left us with 18 cities to rank.

We felt as if a small place with 2,500 people and two murders makes it a lot more dangerous than a city of 25,000 people with one murder.We must note that this report is not an analysis of the effectiveness of local police departments. It simply states where murders occurred most frequently.

Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous municipality of the U.S. state of Utah. With an estimated population of 190,884 in 2014, the city is the core of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a population of 1,153,340. Salt Lake City is further situated within a larger metropolis known as the Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo Combined Statistical Area. This region is a corridor of contiguous urban and suburban development stretched along an approximately 120-mile segment of the Wasatch Front, comprising a population of 2,423,912 as of 2014. It is one of only two major urban areas in the Great Basin.

Ogden is a city and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately 10 miles east of the Great Salt Lake and 40 miles north of Salt Lake City. The population was 84,316 in 2014, according to the US Census Bureau, making it Utah’s 7th largest city. The city served as a major railway hub through much of its history, and still handles a great deal of freight rail traffic which makes it a convenient location for manufacturing and commerce. Ogden is also known for its many historic buildings, proximity to the Wasatch Mountains, and as the location of Weber State University.

Murray City is a city situated on the Wasatch Front in the core of Salt Lake Valley in the U.S. state of Utah. Named for territorial governor Eli Murray, it is the state’s fourteenth largest city. According to the 2010 census, Murray has approximately 46,746 residents. Murray shares borders with Taylorsville, Holladay, South Salt Lake and West Jordan, Utah. Once teeming with heavy industry, Murray-s industrial sector now has little trace and has been replaced by major mercantile sectors. Known for its central location in Salt Lake County, Murray has been called the Hub of Salt Lake County. Unlike most of its neighboring communities, Murray operates its own police, fire, power, water, library, and parks and recreation departments and has its own school district. While maintaining many of its own services, Murray has one of the lowest city tax rates in the state.

Park City is a city in Summit County, Utah, United States. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is 32 miles southeast of downtown Salt Lake City and 20 miles from Salt Lake City’s east edge of Sugar House along Interstate 80. The population was 7,558 at the 2010 census. On average, the tourist population greatly exceeds the number of permanent residents.

There You Have It – The Places With The Most Murders In Utah For 2019

If you’re looking at the places in Utah with the most murders, and where residents have the highest chances of being killed themselves, this is an accurate list. Again, these statistics are an indication of where crimes occur, not a statement about the effectiveness of the law enforcement in the areas they serve.